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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Jesus Appears

We've discussed the use of sacramentals and objects that remind us to keep the faith quite often. There are those that we love.

Those that we don't love.

and many that are just a matter of taste.

I don't much care for football Jesus and Jesus sports statues. Many people do. It bothers me, for one thing, that He's taking sides. And if you think this is okay, how about when we add the Crown of Thorns?

That said, I would always rather err on the side of "whatever floats your boat" when it comes to what calls to people. Don't fix it if it isn't broken. If it's working for you, go with it.

But Banana Jesus?

That is a black spot on a banana, not a message from God. No.

And Peanut Butter and Banana Jesus? No. No. No. Somebody call Elvis.

In keeping with our sense of compassion, I can only hope this person lovingly fashioned this food sculpture and thought of the words of Our Savior while doing so. A fleeting hope. Because next, you have to either eat that Jesus, or throw Him away. Neither option works for me.

I suppose when the banana darkens in the air, it will actually look more like Jesus than Vincent Van Gogh or Kirk Douglas playing Vincent Van Gogh in "Lust for Life".

12 comments:

We ran into a similar problem a couple Christmases ago, with the purchase of a Nativity chocolate mold.

The ramifications did not occur to us until later, when we stared at the beautiful, chocolatey set and thought, "...now what?" It's okay to eat the camel, the sheep is fine, the shepherds and wise men, sure, *maybe* even Mary and Joseph... but you just can't chow down on the baby Jesus.

The Holy family lived on top of my sister's fridge for almost a year until they got all crumbly and weird.

Jana and Maureen - thank you, I enjoyed both of your comments. Sister I have a question on St.Benedict Joseph Labre do you think you could get a metal for him and St. Dymphna? and let people know about them, you may have talked about St. Dymphna, and I have not seen all your pages. Thank you for being here to answer our questions or at least help us to understand some things we wonder about.Tara

I still don't know who the saint of the day is. *sigh* I'll try to remember to look it up. I agree with Claudia. Some people need to better occupy their time than make *ugh* edible Jesus. No thank you.

Christmas last year lead to a discovery of a slightly larger than Barbie dolls that were actually depictions of Mary and Jesus. They had a string, and would say whatever they said in a choice of languages: Spanish or English. Just set the switch.I was horrified. A *shudder* edible Mary and Jesus is just beyond ridiculous.

I remember reading in my Catechism that a young girl was asked the difference between a Crucifix and the Eucharist and she said, "A Crucifix looks like Our Lord but it is not He ; the Eucharist does not look like Him but it is!"

Yes, God created food, and athleticism, and the inventive imagination, but representing a sacred figure in such mundane terms is at best rather cheeky and flippant. At its worst, however, it can be outright sacrilegious.

That is going on here across Europe with the tour of Castellucci's play depicting a huge portrait of Our Lord overlooking an old man with constant scatological problems. It is not that God does not see our troubles; it is that such imagery amounts to a blurring of the line between sacred and profane. More directly offensive was the fact that in the original version of the play, the feces were actually thrown at the image of Christ!

A group of Catholics here in Paris have been out to the theater every night protesting. Two of the nights I was among them. Several dozen of them, including two of my friends, entered the theater, blew whistles and then began to pray the Rosary--and were arrested and charged with "disruption of freedom of expression!" And believe it or not, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris has sided with the French state condemned US, the protestors! Fortunately, not all the French bishops have been so cavalier and some of them have supported our efforts.

Sister Mary Martha, can you share this with your readers?? Americans have got to be aware and be outraged by this horror!